Mozart's Requiem
by ShyLight
Summary: G1: Soundwave could not care less on what happens to the human race. He does, however, have a soft spot for some of their music. Oneshot.


I realized I haven't written anything about the Decepticons. They need some love too. This is a silly little oneshot.

Disclaimer: Don't own. Never will.

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Soundwave was bent over a desk in an attempt to piece back together one of Buzzsaw's wings. It had been shattered in the last battle. He was trying reeeeally hard to concentrate on his work. He really was, but it was really difficult when he had his casseticon twins cackling madly, playing a horrific Earth song loudly behind him.

_Do it now  
You and me baby ain't nothing but mammals  
So let's do it like they do on the discover channel  
Do it again now  
You and me baby ain't nothing but mammals  
So let's do it like they do on the discover channel_

"Rumble: Turn off that noise immediately."

"Aww. But it's funny, Soundwave!" Rumble whined, and lowered the volume of his speakers.

_Love the kind you clean up with a mop and bucket  
With the lost catacombs of Egypt  
Only god knows where we stuck it  
Hieroglyphics let me be specific  
I wanna be down in your south seas_

"Turn it off," Soundwave said with more vehemence then before. As much vehemence one could get with monotone anyway.

The casseticon grumbled, "Kill joy," and shut the music off.

Soundwave was relieved by the silence. The sound was horrid. The singer had flat, breathy notes, the lyrics were shallow, vulgar and sloppily thrown together, and the instruments left nothing to be desired. Go figured that such an artistically retarded race would slap together such a horrid compilation of sound and call it music.

He didn't understand the Autobot's at all. Why did they risk their lives for the humans? Couldn't they see that the human race was stupid, selfish, lazy and useless? They couldn't do anything on their own, what they did manage to accomplish was always in their own interest at the expense of everything else around them and they contributed nothing noteworthy to the universe. They had no redeeming qualities.

"Soundwave!" The blue Decepticon snapped his head toward the command bay's entrance to see a large silver mech waltz through.

"Yes, Megatron," Soundwave inquired as he stood up.

"Soundwave. Dirge claims that the other day he caught the readings of a potential natural gas pocket in one of the human cities. However he said the energy signal was faint. I want you, you being the only competent soldier on this base," he said this with mild disdain, though not aimed at Soundwave, "to scout it out and see if the reading was indeed accurate. If it is we'll tear down whatever is in the way and extract the raw energy."

"Yes, Megatron," Soundwave replied in monotone.

"And be discreet. I don't want you to attract the attention of those Autofools."

"Yes, Megatron," he responded once more. With his objection in mind he turned on his heel and left.

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It was a starless night. Thick clouds blocked the heavens from view leaving a hazed darkness that consumed the land.

Soundwave had arrived to where the coordinates had directed. They led him to the top of a hill that over looked a human city. To his dismay, there was a building on top of where the readings were supposed to be.

He could just tear the structure down to get closer to the where the signals were strongest, but that would attract Autobots faster than flies to honey. Megatron specifically ordered him to be discreet just in case the readings were wrong so they could avoid confrontation.

Quietly, he shuffled as close to the large building as possible in attempt to get a stronger signal. He was up to the wall when he finally got one. It was weak and would take a long time to be scanned completely, but it would do.

He set down a small box, one designed to scan the deeper portions of the Earth for potential energy sources, on the ground next to the wall. The process would take roughly 7 minutes to complete itself.

There was nothing left to do but wait. Soundwave crouched by the wall and watched the city below. It was backlit by an ugly red haze, a symptom of too many lights lighting up the blanket of pollution that shrouded the city. It was a hideous metropolis with shoddy buildings that were arranged with no planning. It looked like they popped out of the ground like mushrooms. He watched the frantic lights of vehicles skittering around like bugs in the dark, and thought with contempt about how disorganized humans were. All going on with their little pathetic lives with no thought to anything other than their own little worlds.

Humans were ignorant

He was left to his thoughts in silence.

However a soft yet erratic melody cut through the silence, immediately perking Soundwave's audios.

The source of the strange sound was inside of the building.

He stood up carefully and peered through one of the windows to look inside.

It was a concert hall made of black marble. The house was filled with red seats (in each one sat a human) and there were balconies (also with humans, he noted dully). A dark, lacquered stage gleamed with a dark luster and was framed by elaborate golden carvings that shimmered in the dim light. It looked almost like a giant, ornate picture frame. In front of the stage there was a dip that was blocked by a tall wall that was almost as high as the stage. Inside of the pit there were several humans, and to his complete surprise _they_ were the source of the haunting sound.

In the band pit several humans held curved, hourglass shaped boxes, ones made of polished maple wood, against their shoulders.

Soundwave watched what they were doing with curiosity.

They were dragging strange, bent sticks (made of Brazil wood his analysis told him), lightly across the steel strings to produce enticing silvery sounds. Occasionally one of them would stop, twist one of the pegs sticking out from the tip of the instruments neck to tighten a string and then would test it out once again. Seemingly satisfied with the adjustments the musicians settled down.

Other humans tested out larger string instruments. Some were blowing into complex looking silver pipes and some were tightening the leather heads of strange barreled shaped things that made thumping noises when struck. All of them quieted when a tall, dark skinned woman entered the band pit.

She pulled back her dark hair, which was in hundreds of tiny little braids that reached her waist, and tide them back with a thick cord. She pushed her half-moon spectacles up the bridge of her nose and produced a long white baton from one of her baggy sleeves. From her other sleeve she drew out a rolled up wad of paper which she unfurled and straightened on a metal stand in front of her.

Soundwave noticed that all of the humans armed with the strange wooden trinkets and metal rods stopped what they were doing and turned their attentions to the rotund woman.

The lights in the theater dimmed, and the hushed din that had once filled the auditorium became silence.

A spotlight cut through the darkness and showed on the dark woman (she was standing on a stool to be seen). She bowed to the audience and the crowd began to clap with respectful moderation.

'_What foolishness is this?'_ Soundwave could not help but wonder.

She stepped down from the stool and disappeared into the pit. Suddenly the crimson, velvet curtains drew back with only the sound of creaking ropes and cloth lightly brushing the ground.

One by one, a group of human teenagers began to file out onto the stage. Their tube like black gowns ruffled with their steps. Some of the children were doing their best not to trip over the oversized black gowns as they made their way to the stage. All of them were doing their best to remain straight-backed and poised while they walked.

They lined up in several rows on steps that were set out on the dark stage.

One child stood out to Soundwave, a small female in the front.

The child was small even for a human and (because of her height) she stood in the front where she could be seen. She was mousy and thin enough that her collarbone protruded noticeably. Her skin was pale, almost translucent enough to clearly see the spidery blue veins that ran through neck and face, and her hair, the color of cooked oatmeal, hung limply and flat against her head. Her large green eyes were watery and held anxiety in them.

She was far from beautiful, or pretty even, but to a human passerby one could consider her kind of "cute" in a small, shy, I-look-like-the-world-is-trying-to-eat-me sort of way.

To Soundwave though, she was just another flesh bag of fragile bones, limp tendons, and squishy vitals. She was just another inferior organic to add to the already large, festering pile of them.

The large black woman waved her baton experimentally and tapped against the metal stand in front of her. The other humans readied themselves with their varying wood and metal apparatuses.

Gracefully, she made a sweeping motion with both hands and the other humans reacted to the motion.

The soft delicate sound of the violin wafted through the large room catching Soundwave by surprise.

The Decepticon had his interests perked. Never before had he heard such a strange, soothing sound, and it was produced by the humans of all beings. What could this strange, new phenomenon be?

Then the strangely dressed human adolescents began to sing as well, following the instrumental lead. Their voices added one by one like raindrops until their voices became a powerful, torrential downpour. The sopranos tackled the higher notes while the altos hit the lower ones. Baritones and Basses created a reverberating backbone to the softer notes of the females. The different melodies blended together masterfully and no section overpowered any other.

"_La- cry- mo- sa, _

_di- es il-la_ "

"_qua re- sur- get ex fa- vi-lla _

_judicandus homo reus."_

The tune was haunting, and sad. A strange melancholy hung over it and yet it was so beautiful.

Soundwave was in complete and total shock.

The music the humans were producing, it was gorgeous.

While a human would probably not catch it, one voice in particular stood out to Soundwave's highly sensitive audios. It belonged to the pale, mousy child in the front.

Her face was flushed from exertion, and beads of silvery fluids began perspiring on her thin face, shining like little gems under the burning spot light. Her chest was puffed out from the air she kept trapped under her powerful voice. The air looked ready to burst from her being but she kept it caged within her lungs, tamed it and transformed it into the fuel to power her silky, sweet notes.

"_Huic ergo parce, Deus:_

_Pie Jesu Domine,_

_Dona eis requiem. Amen."_

It was perfect. Her timing, her tone, her diction: It was all perfect. Her notes were crisp and sharp, her lyrics were lucid and eloquent, her timing was matched perfectly with that of the instruments and the others around her and she sang without overpowering them.

The humans sang in faultless unison. Their several voices blended together to form one emotional noise. The syrupy squeal of the violins constantly underlined their singing, and the words of the song were occasionally punctuated by the vibration of a drum.

Soundwave listened with awe. A feeling one could only describe as the chills ran through his frame.

Soundwave was not familiar with the human language it was spoken in, but even not understanding the words he could feel as if he understood what the song was about. Its meaning was shown through the passion it was sung with.

There was such an emotion; Soundwave was almost overpowered by it. Emotion wafted from their voices in waves portraying sadness, desperation, guilt, grievance, humility all rolled into one.

The singing stopped and was filled with an instrumental solo lead by the stringed instruments and backed up by the reed instruments. The tunes were silky and smooth like silk sheets sliding against themselves.

It was brief and the humans began singing again. The deep, strong voices of the males and the sweet, high voices of the females merged together like a well fitted puzzle.

"_Lacrymosa dies illa qua resurget ex favilla_

_judicandus homo reus.  
Huic ergo parce deus pie jesu domine,  
dona eis requiem…"_

"This music…" Soundwave whispered in amazement.

It was a masterpiece.

"_Aaaaameeeen!"_

The song ended with a drawn out note from the humans and an elaborate piece lead by the drums. It cut off sharply and the auditorium was filled with applause.

Soundwave walked away from the window and sat down on the ground. He was careful so as not to cause a tremor that would notify the humans of him being there.

He began thinking.

"If the reading is positive, Megatron will destroy these humans," Soundwave finally said.

Images began to flash through his mind.

Handsome marbles walls turned to smoldering rubble. The red satin of an elegant curtain shredded and burned. A once lacquered, oak wood stage reduced to charred splinters. The broken, bloody bodies of several humans, either dying or dead, scattered among the carnage. Some half crushed from debris, some charred to an unrecognizable crisp, and others bleeding profusely with fatal wounds.

And one small human stood out in his mind.

Her spindly limbs sprawled out on top of the chaos, her sweet face tilted to the side. Her black robes torn to ribbons, the flesh underneath, now stark white with death, riddled with cuts under every tear. Her limp, light hair matted with blood and ash. And her eyes…her emerald green eyes dull and unseeing of the slaughter around her.

Yet it wasn't the image of his thoughts that disturbed him.

It was the silence that filled him with dread.

He could not care less on what happened to the fleshings. The image of their deaths did not fill him with remorse.

It was their voices he would mourn. Such a beautiful sound, such a powerful instrument, doomed to be silenced forever. It would be such a waste of one of the universe's great gifts.

A ping snapped Soundwave out of his thoughts. He looked to see the small box by the wall had finished its analysis, and so he read the reading.

And as he did the humans inside the building began a new tune that was equally beautiful and haunting as the last. This time it was only sung by the males and it was much more cheerful, and uplifting then the last song.

"_Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus,_

_Dominus Deus Sabbaoth;_

_Pleni sunt caeli et terra gloria Tua._

_Hosanna in excelsis._"

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Megatron waited expectantly watching as Soundwave approached them in the air.

His communications officer landed and walked in front of Megatron.

"Well?" The Decepticon leader demanded expectantly.

"Megatron. The reading came in," Soundwave spoke steadily. He observed that Megatron had readied the seekers and the Constructicons for a full frontal assault on the defenseless human building.

"Stop dancing around the point. What were they?" Megatron asked brusquely.

"Negative," Soundwave spoke in perfect monotone.

"What?" Megatron yelled in disbelief and anger.

"Negative: There is no energy pocket located in the premises. The readings were negative."

"I see," Megatron growled and shot a menacing glare toward Dirge. The cone headed seeker shrunk back under the heated stare. "Decepticons! Head back to the base!" The Decepticon leader commanded angrily.

The Decepticons began their flight back. Soundwave hung back for only a second and then followed behind the others.

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The language the song was in was called Latin.

"_Tearful that day, _

_on which will rise from ashes _

_guilty man for judgment. _

_So have mercy, O God, on this person. _

_Compassionate Lord Jesus, _

_grant them rest. Amen."_

That was what the words had meant.

Soundwave was in the command bay. The only two other mechs there were his casseticon twins, Rumble and Frenzy.

Soundwave had looked up the translation of the song the second he had gotten back and couldn't help but see the irony in what the lyrics meant. That was what the humans had sung while they were blissfully unaware that they were only moments away from being potentially destroyed; that their lives fell into the hands of an indifferent mech that would normally not care for their existence.

And Soundwave still didn't. He still did not care about the humans, whether they lived or died.

However, he did not want to be the one that robbed the universe of such beautiful music.

"Hey, Boss," Frenzy started with unease, "Why did you…" He looked around frantically to see if anyone listening. Seeing that there was no one he whispered, "Why did you lie?"

"Yeah," Rumble added. He was equally baffled by his creator's actions. "The readings were positive. There _was_ a large natural gas reservoir underneath the auditorium. How come you didn't tell Megatron that?"

"If he finds out you weren't telling the truth he'll have your, and our, heads. Your position and rank will be stripped from ya…Hell, everything you worked for and all of the trust that ya built up will be gone! Like that! And over humans? Do you need to get your head checked?"

"We won't tell anyone about it, Boss, but, why?" There was curiosity in Rumble's voice.

Soundwave paused and thought about a response.

"Megatron would not understand. He only understands what will give him power and what will get in his way. He only understands the language of war."

Soundwave also understood the language of war but he knew another one as well.

He was fluent in the universal language of music.

"Gee, that really clarified things," Frenzy said sarcastically.

Soundwave ignored the casseticon, and made himself comfortable on one of the large command bay chairs. He laced his fingers together, rested them on his midsection and reclined back comfortably.

On a frequency that only he could hear, soft music began to play.

"_Lacrymosa dies illa qua resurget ex favilla_

_judicandus homo reus.  
huic ergo parce deus pie jesu domine,  
dona eis requiem…"_

The human known as Mozart was a genius. Absolutely brilliant.

Apparently, the humans had a few redeeming qualities after all.

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I read somewhere once that Soundwave likes classical music XD.

I love Soundwave.

If any of you are curious about the song Lacrymosa, look it up on Youtube. Make sure it's Mozarts version and _not _the Evanescence remake.

Hope you all enjoyed.

Reviews are loved and flames are used for Marshmallows.


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